7o8 APPENDIX 



of the Frain or during our sledge expedition to the north, that 

 would point to the proximity of any considerable expanse of 

 land ; the ice seemed to drift unimpeded, particularly in a 

 northerly direction. The way in which the drift set straight to 

 the north as soon as there was a southerly wind was most strik- 

 ing. It was with the greatest dif^culty that the wind could 

 head the drift back towards the southeast. Had there been 

 any considerable expanse of land within reasonable distance to 

 the north of us, it would have blocked the free movement of 

 the ice in that direction. Besides, the large quantity of drift- 

 ice, which drifts southward with great rapidity along the east 

 coast of Greenland all the way down to Cape Farewell and 

 beyond it, seems to point in the same direction. Such exten- 

 sive ice-fields must have a still larger breadth of sea to come 

 from than that through which we drifted. Had the Frani con- 

 tinued her drift instead of breaking loose to the north of Spitz- 

 bergen, she would certainly have come down along the coast of 

 Greenland ; but probably she would not have got close in to 

 that coast, but would haye had a certain quantity of ice be- 

 tween her and it; and that ice must come from a sea lying 

 north of our route. On the other hand, it is quite probable that 

 land may exist to a considerable extent on the other side of the 

 Pole between the Pole and the North American archipelago. 

 It appears to me only reasonable to assume that this multitude 

 of islands must extend farther towards the north. 



As a result of our expedition, I think we can now form a 

 fairly clear idea of the way in which the drift-ice is continually 

 moving from one side of the polar basin north of Bering Strait 

 and the coast of Siberia, and across the regions around the 

 Pole, and out towards the Atlantic Ocean. Where geographers 

 at one time were disposed to locate a solid, immovable, and 

 massive ice-mantle, covering the northern extremity of our 

 globe, we now find a continually breaking and shifting expanse 

 of drift-ice. The evidence which even before our expedition 

 had induced me to believe most strongly in this theory is sup- 

 plied by the Siberian drift-wood that is continually being car- 

 ried to Greenland, as well as the mud found on the ice, as it 



